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Ministers believe top universities not good enough to charge £9k

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/18/top-universities-not-good-enough-to-charge-9000-ministers-believ/

Do you agree? Opinions?

Reply 1

Legendary Quest

I wouldn't mind if they made them cheaper
:smile:

Reply 2

Smack

Volunteer Team

Possibly.

But the mistake here is that ministers are assuming that prospective applicants are choosing their institutions based on the quality of teaching provided. I would be very surprised if that was actually the case.

By and large, I reckon that prospective students are looking to buy into the prestige of the institution, on the belief that an institution that sounds better to them is also one that will sound better to prospective employers, rather than the actual quality of education provided. I hold this belief on the basis of what I have read on this site for more than half a decade, particularly how students will react to the student satisfaction metric on the newspaper league tables.

As an aside, I would also think it a bit worrying if ministers could decide how much a university can charge.

Reply 3

Gnomes&Knights

Well I study at UCL and the quality of education there is crap (from my experience). Terrible lecturers, little guidance, little support and to think that this university was actually ranked top 5 in the world just doesn't make sense to me. People say King's is overrated but my god they need to come to UCL to see that it's no different there. Not worth £9000 a year for that's for sure.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 4

Joinedup

First thought was to wonder which university the person holding up the confidential briefing papers for the cameras graduated from.

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It's good that the government are finally looking at teaching quality - Here's something else they could look at.

9000 fees apply to courses that cost less than 9000 to deliver, typically BAs. Students on cheap courses are subsidising students on expensive courses, it's a remnant of the old system where tuition was paid per bum on seat by the state and averaged out over the student body by the uni. It does not seem moral to stick the costs for person A's expensive course onto person B's fees when those fees are paid for by a loan person B is expected to repay.